Charles d'Anjou

Hybrid Gallica
Hybridized by Jean-Pierre Vibert 1995

The flowers of this fragrant rose are very double (more than 100 petals), measuring about three inches across. They are shaped like a ranunculus with a button eye. The petals are purple-violet with a lighter reverse. The wood is prickly, and the rose will sucker freely on its own roots.

Named after Charles of Anjou (1220-1285), trouvère, brother of King Louis IX of France and husband of Sancia of Aragon. In 1265 Pope Urban VI declared King Manfred of Naples and Sicily unfit to reign and named Charles of Anjou to replace him. Charles conquered his new kingdom but was forcibly ejected from Sicily by his subjects in 1282 on the occasion known as the Sicilian Vespers. He reigned on the remaining half of his kingdom until his death.